US Citizens Abroad: Time to Request Your Absentee Ballot

A button that says "VOTE". Image source.

For those of you who are US citizens not living in the US (like me, I live in China):

You still have the right to vote. However, it requires some extra work, so get going on it now. This year, because of COVID-19, there will be way more people voting by absentee ballot, so there could be delays in the system. So you should get started on this now.

VoteFromAbroad.org tells you everything you need to know. It will walk you through the steps of filling out the form to request your ballot. (The website was created by Democrats Abroad, but it is nonpartisan. But if you're not comfortable with that and you want to use a different site, search "Federal Post Card Application" to find more information.)

Every state has slightly different requirements about how to request your ballot and how to send in your completed ballot. Some states do everything electronically and some states require you to mail or fax things. (If your state requires you to fax your form, and you're like "well where am I gonna find a fax machine" you're in luck- you can actually just email your form to fax@fvap.gov and they'll do the faxing for you. More details on that here, here, and here.)

Request your ballot now. Vote vote vote. If you have friends who are Americans living abroad, send them the link: VoteFromAbroad.org